


Dirty Talkin', Talkin' Dirty Talk

by HalcyonFrost



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Banter, Dirty Talk, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Loki (Marvel) Does What He Wants, M/M, Not Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase Two Compliant, Tony Stark Does What He Wants, secret meetings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-06
Updated: 2017-12-06
Packaged: 2019-02-11 06:04:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12929082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HalcyonFrost/pseuds/HalcyonFrost
Summary: Loki had a reason for everything. If he let himself get caught, he wanted something. And what Loki wanted, Loki got.





	Dirty Talkin', Talkin' Dirty Talk

**Author's Note:**

> I HAVE RETURNED FROM THE DEAD. AGAIN. HAVE A FIC TO CELEBRATE.

Every time felt like a stage production. Follow the queues, remember the script, and what always happened, always happened.

If shit was started, then the Avengers had to respond, and it didn't matter that Loki was still running the show and held all the cards. They had to fight, and time after time, it ended when and how Loki wanted it to end. Because despite every attempt to block him, Loki could pull all the right strings and get what he wanted.

No other antagonists had this issue - just Loki. And as much as nothing was a surprise in a fight with him anymore, it still didn't make him predictable. How the hell did _that_ make sense? How was it going through the motions and knowing where to step next in any number of a handful of potential endings, and yet Loki still stayed one step ahead?

It happened like this: Loki started a fight, the Avengers responded, and depending on what Loki's goal was, he either vanished when the spectacle was no longer needed, or he "made a mistake" and the Avengers would catch him.

God only knew how many times they had captured Loki, but that hardly meant much. Arresting Loki was just another act that they knew meant nothing in the end. Even when they caught him, they couldn't hold him, and nothing the Avengers or SHIELD tried - magical, traditional, or anything else in the boundaries of humane treatment - had caged Loki any longer than he allowed.

After enough repetitions of that, the Avengers tried to just _not_ take the bait Loki set. Just one time. It didn't go well. Loki didn't take to being ignored, nor could the Avengers ignore the mayhem he was making more and more of the longer they waited, so they ended up bringing him in after all, and it came about that Loki needed protection from an arriving enemy of his own. After a brief team up, Loki skipped custody the second he didn't need them anymore. Everything was a mess, SHIELD added in a few more safety measures to the protocols for handling Loki, and life went on.

Arresting Loki was just another exhibit, another time pretending that the Avengers were winning while Loki always lost, except Loki never truly lost. The public just had to believe he did, and it was an honest to god shock that Loki played to that too, being that he didn't generally give a shit about anything beyond getting what he wanted, however he wanted. Somehow, it suited his plans to have the public believe him a fallible joke of a villain whose world domination plans constantly failed. Except that Loki didn't _have_ world domination plans anymore, just mischief and stealing baubles that caught his fancy - very simply put, he was a god of mischief on the loose.

Loki was a mess of gorgeous chaos that no longer suffered ill company if he didn't find it worthy, which made it all the more foreboding when Loki was suffering it longer than usual. They had brought him to the Avengers compound, confined to a cage that they even got a consulting Asgardian mage to approve and create specifically for their Asgardian-passing demigod. Three days into his stay, he still hadn't turned the tables, and confusion had turned to suspicion and paranoia.

The effort to triple security measures for their guest meant that Tony hadn't slept more than a couple power naps in the past 96 hours, so he was more than a little stretched thin by the time he retreated to his personal suite to clean up and make another attempt at sleep. Maybe that explained why Tony didn't immediately call the Avengers when he got out of the shower and found Loki calmly waiting in an arm chair just outside the bathroom door. Tony had about two seconds to turn from startled to scandalized, to grateful he was at least wearing a towel before being surprised by an overpowered alien.

"I should ask why you're here..." But really, he was far more interested in why Loki was occupied with one of Tony's tablets until becoming better occupied with looking over Tony's barely dressed self.

"You dared to think that cage would hold me?" Loki tucked his chin with an amused smile as he leaned forward in his seat. "You are overly confident in unverified sources."

Cryptic _and_ cheeky. Awesome. "Alright, then I'll go for an easier question: what the hell are you doing in my room?"

"You haven't come to visit me yet." Amazing how a god could both pout and still keep that smile curling his mouth. Though the pouting was more in his tone than his face. "And as they say, if you won't do it, then I will."

"That seems vaguely threatening."

"Not at all." He assured to no reassuring feeling. "Kinder company is simply more welcome than what I'm currently being given. Stoic gatekeepers and imbeciles that think they can convince out any answers that I am not already willing to give. It will not do."

"And I'm kinder company?"

"Kinder on the eyes, certainly." Loki turned down his voice to a tone that said "turn down the sheets," and Tony just about dropped his towel in shock.

It was brazen enough to shock a huff of laughter out of Tony anyway before he gave up trying to stay on guard and just walked past Loki to the dresser on the other side of the room. "Bold, huh? I can work with that."

"I hope so."

As sure as Tony hadn't considered Loki this way before, the purring the demigod could put to just a few words was certainly the thing to change Tony's mind in about .5 seconds. Goddamn demigods and their goddamn sex voices testing Tony's recently underutilized libido.

With Loki's eyes tracking Tony all the way across the room to the dresser, Tony tugged open his underwear drawer and retrieved a pair of boxers. He briefly debating being more modest and slipping them under the towel, but did it really make a difference? Nah. And it was time to get something back at Loki too.

Tony whipped off the towel and pulled his boxers up, allowing a brief but full view of his bare backside, hearing an unmistakeable sharp inhale and approving _mmm_ from the direction of the chair. Tossing the towel over his shoulder, Tony turned back around, Loki's eyes still lingering downwards and his lower lip caught between his teeth.

"Bit late for visitors anyway." And he did mean visitors in either of their rooms. Loki finally drew his eyes back to Tony's face again before Tony continued. "If I come down tomorrow morning, are you actually going to be in your apparently fake cage?"

"Of course. Where else would I be if you were there?"

"I'll come visit if you stay out of my room."

"If that's what you want."

"It is."

"Then we have a deal." Loki leaned back before swinging himself onto his feet fluidly. "I'll see you in the morning, Mr. Stark." And after a shockingly sincere half bow, he disappeared upon straightening.

Sure enough, Loki was there when Tony arrived the next morning, and no one else seemed to know that Loki spent a spell away from his supposed confines. Tony had every intention of being aloof and interrogating Loki in much more subtle ways to figure out how the fuck he not only got out of his cage without anyone noticing but how and why he made it to Tony's room in the middle of the night. Instead he ended up picking Loki's brain on magic in general, and it was kind of... really... _fascinating_. Definitely the only reason Tony started coming back every day to chat. Becoming more knowledgeable in magic was completely useful for combatting other magic users, so that was a valid reason. It was what Tony told himself, at least. It would have been so much easier if it was true...

Still, Tony couldn't stay all day every day, and he was starting to get comments from the others about what he was doing there so much. It wouldn't do to have suspicion heaped on both of them, so Tony started keeping better track of how long he spent loitering outside Loki's cage, and Loki grew impatient with extended periods of company he didn't enjoy. Just short of a fortnight, as soon as Loki was no longer amused with his interrogators' and the Avengers' failed attempts to intimidate him into compliance, Loki had sighed, proclaimed he was bored, and vanished from the compound completely.

When they decided to more thoroughly check the now empty cage, it turned out that the consulted mage that had supposedly set up the cage actually owed Loki a favor. Enough of a favor that they agreed to switch places. Meaning that the wards designed to hold Loki were actually designed _by_ Loki and therefore not going to work. SHIELD was furious, the Avengers were aggravated, and Tony ended up finding himself... more than a little amused by the whole thing. Who would have suspected Loki to be the one designing his own cage? While Tony didn't laugh in front of everyone, it certainly took most of his strength to hold it in until he got back to a more private area, and once Tony had wiped the tears from his eyes, he got back to helping sort out the aftermath of Loki's latest vacation.

The assumption was that his unusually long stay was a part of a long con of some type - perhaps it took him time to break the defenses or gain access to something special, but the oddity of his stay became even stranger when an inventory made to find what Loki had been after, then revealed that Loki in fact hadn't stolen anything that time around. Jarvis was the one to privately suggest that perhaps what Loki stole was less material this time. Maybe stealing Tony's attention was just as much a feat than snatching any guarded weapon or magical trinket.

Months piled on; before they knew it, more than a year had passed, and things stayed much the same with a relatively _minor_ adjustment. A strictly private adjustment that no one else had to know about. No one had to know _why_ Tony was slightly more sympathetic to Loki now because Tony still fought the fights that Loki still started, same as every other Avenger was doing. One little quiet chat didn't compromise Tony. Not that little one. No one else had to know about the details or even that it happened at all. Private had nothing to do with public, and public happenings were the number one priority.

In public, nothing _had_ changed. The cycle just repeated with infinite variables and the same end result - Loki got the upper hand, and everyone but Tony was annoyed. Loki's permittance in being arrested was a feint, an illusion, and everyone knew it, but they went through the motions nonetheless in hopes of catching what Loki was up to that he was allowing himself to be taken into custody. Maybe just _once_ they could well and truly get ahead of him. But no one was holding out hope too much.

All of that brought them to today's repeat of the age old, now perfunctory performance of their resident mischief god's capture, this time with Steve being the one cuffing Loki's hands behind his back, and they weren't even specialty ones. Loki stood there and didn't fight it, looking over his shoulder at Steve while the other Avengers were closing in without overly rushing much.

"Alright, we all know this song." Tony stepped up just to the side and behind Loki. "You have the right to remain silent, not that you will," he recited along, and Loki rolled his eyes, "lawyers you don't want and are probably terrified of you anyway, etcetera and so on, anything you say can and will be held against you-"

Loki perked up. "Is that so?" He glanced over his shoulders and pointedly looked Tony up and down. " _Stark_?"

Even Steve paused and flicked his gaze from Loki to Tony, but Tony was just as caught off guard as anyone else. Should it have been a relief that he wasn't the only one hearing the connection between "anything you say can be held against you" and Loki immediately saying Tony's name? Flirting in private was one thing, this was _very public._

"'Kay, playtime is over, Prancer, time to go to reindeer jail." Grabbing the chain between Loki's cuffs with one armoured hand and shoving the other hand between Loki's shoulders, Tony pushed Loki forwards toward the quinjet and ignored Loki's chuckling. Any Avenger that dared look at Tony on the way past got a glare for their questioning gaze and that didn’t much change all the way back to team HQ.

The flight back was awkwardly silent, and Loki had barely taken his eyes off of Tony the whole time until they perp-walked him off the jet and uselessly locked him up in his new room. Fury was awaiting them when they made it over to the conference room, and while the Avengers unsteadily settled into their seats, Tony wasn't feeling like trying to sit still. Loki had An Idea, and Tony wasn't going to sit around waiting for Loki to make the move.

"I need to talk to him in private." Tony went right to it, facing Fury down without fear.

Fury gave him a look like Tony had insulted Fury instead of making a logical request. "That is not advisable." He discouraged.

"Come on, he's obviously aiming for something from me. Let me talk to him."

"If he wants something, I don't feel that giving it to him-" Fury grimaced as his own accidental miswording - "that _complying_ and opening him up to the opportunity is a good idea."

"What are other options do we have? He wants something from me, and only I can figure out what it is."

"We could leave the cameras on." Steve suggested. "Station people right outside the door in case Loki tries anything. But let Stark go in alone if he thinks he can get Loki to spill."

"See, even Cap is advocating. Thank you, Rogers."

"Loki has a weak spot for Stark." Clint added. "Narcissists do prefer to keep company with the same."

"Rude but I know who I am." Tony brushed it off easily and looked back to Fury. "Let me in there."

Fury still looked dubious even when he didn't say a word.

"Let me in there before I find a way in there."

Fury allowed it.

xXx

Loki was playing the part of prisoner not very well, coyly standing in the middle of his updated cage like anyone _outside_ the bars were the stuck ones. The circular cell was set dead center in the middle of an also circular room, and the cell was made of proper prison bars instead of walls. Every bar was etched with wards that had held previous magic users and supernatural beings under lock and key before, but there was still no illusion in any of their minds that it would hold Loki. Nothing else had, why would this?

Loki paced closer when he saw Tony, and uncrossed his hands from behind his back. "I was beginning to wonder whether or not you would show."

Tony very carefully stopped an arm's length away from Loki's farthest possible reach even as Loki stepped closer and closer. "Conjugal visits take negotiating, you know."

Crossing the last pace to the edge of his cage, Loki grinned and wrapped his fingers around the bars, deliberately slow. "I hope you made a fair deal."

Tony shrugged one shoulder. "Not too bad a one. There's a bit of a catch though."

"Do tell."

"Everyone, myself included, is a bit curious about your recent... turn of phrase."

"When I said your name at the promise of you holding it against me?"

"Yeah, that."

"I would have thought it fairly self-explanatory for someone like you to recognize." His fingers trailed down the bars, and Tony found it all too easy to imagine those hands making the same motions down Tony's body. "Haven't you noticed the way I... _handle_ you differently than the others?"

"Do tell." Tony parroted back.

"I have plans for you, dear Stark. And I seek to make you crave them as much as I do."

"Plans like..."

"I would have you slowly, intimately, in every way that makes you scream nothing but your pleasure and my name."

"Oh, those kinds of plans." Tony pivoted on his heel a bit and shrugged. "Well, they do sound like fun ones."

"You jest." Loki withdrew, but his lips were still turned in a predatory smirk. "But you're interested still. I can see it in your eyes."

"Funny thing, that-" Tony turned to pace around the cell, and Loki started to follow. "I don't do the whole 'look at someone and wanna smash' thing. Sex is fun with the right people, I like to indulge, and my libido definitely isn't for the faint of heart either, though it's definitely overexaggerated in the press."

"A shame. I hoped those sources to be more reliable."

"They're half-right half of the time."

"Is this a soft way to say no?" Loki was definitely disappointed, but his tone was inquiring, genuinely curious even if he was likely looking for whether or not "yes" was a possibility in the future.

"Depends." Tony stopped, and Loki did the same. Tony stepped closer to the bars, and Loki mirrored the movement. Tony wrapped one hand around a bar, and Loki set his hand just below Tony's with the other a few bars apart. Following Tony's lead and waiting for an opportunity to take another step closer to what they were carefully stepping around. Loki's gaze didn't break from Tony's for a second, drawn in by body language and the almost-promises Tony was dangling between them. "What if I do say yes? We spend the night together and back to enemies the next day? Ongoing sex buddies? Cuddling? You have a plan here, I'm sure, so what was on your mind when you decided to proposition me in the middle of a chaos-tossed street in front of my teammates?"

"Perhaps I was testing your interest. Your friends' opinions are important to you - trying to sneak around them wouldn't last long, severed either by your guilt or by the truth coming out and branding you things you are not." The hand below Tony's slipped the micrometer upwards needed to touch, Loki's thumb raising to stroke over Tony's pinky finger. "Perhaps I wanted to see if your interest remained in every setting, not just temptations and secrets in the dark depths of night."

"And if it does? If I'm willing to do something about my interest?"

"Then I suppose it depends on what you want too. A partnership, not an ownership."

At least he said the right words. Still. It wasn't an easy thing to respond to. "Then it looks like I have some things to think about."

"It looks as though you do." Loki agreed easily.

"You gonna be here when I come back?"

Loki smiled a privately amused thing and nodded. "Where else would I be, if not where you are?"

Tony withdrew and made for the exit, only glancing back over his shoulder once at the god still lingering at the edge of his cage.

Well. Loki only ever came into custody to steal something. Seemed what he had his eye on this time was, again, less material.

xXx

There was no need to rehash the conversations to the others when Tony got back to the conference room; they agreed before Tony even went in that everyone would be watching closely on camera. However, it left them not much to say once they settled back in, and there was a very long, drawn out silence when most seemed to not know what _to_ say. Seemed they didn't have any bright ideas for the latest Loki curiosity, but lucky for them, Tony did have an idea. Too bad it wasn't one they were going to immediately like.

"I think we have an opportunity here." He addressed the group + Fury as a whole, pulling his best convincing business voice to persuade them.

Steve already looked dubious, but he was at least listening. "What opportunity?"

"What if I could turn one of our most resilient and persistent antagonists into a member of the team? What if I could get Loki on our side?"

Clint wasn't dubious; he was _glaring_. "And how are you going to do that?"

"Obviously, Loki has... interests. And I know how to... ply my charms." Tony proposed, leaning forward with his elbows on the table. "I'm not saying an immediate turncoat ability, but if I could get close to him, convince him over with perks-"

"Perks such as?" Natasha asked, but Tony could see in her face that she'd already figured it out.

"Well, he likes me, so I'm thinking _I_ would be a perk."

Steve looked appalled. "Hang on, you don't mean..."

Natasha cut him off even before Steve to stutter in disbelief: "Sorry to disappoint you, Steve, but Stark wouldn't be the first person to use sex as a motivating factor for switching sides."

"Definitely not the first or the last, but I was thinking of letting him gradually seduce me, actually. Could be fun. And of course, if he wants that chance, he's gotta trade in the villainy title."

"You're implying you would use my brother." Thor was a cold silent, his brow furrowed in either anger or confusion; it was hard to tell which or if it was both.

"Using him would be using sex as a behavioral treat. 'Be a good boy, and I'll spread my legs for you.' That's not this. This is 'I know you like me, but I don't date people that try to almost-kill me and my friends every week, so take your pick' and have him choose what he wants more." A thought tickled Tony's brain. "You know the phrase: if you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends."

Rhodey promptly jammed his fist against his mouth in a familiar position of forced restraint. Any other time, Tony would push the envelope and test his friend's strength (even Steve had a tempted smirk curling at his mouth), but Fury was giving Tony that tired, fatherly, "don't make me make you pay for that," so Tony stuck to the subject just this once.

"Chaos or chance, those are the choices." Tony restarted. "Like parole. You want the freedom, you gotta work for the side you did wrong."

"You think he would choose you?"

"Were you watching the eye sex, Steve? If I had said yes then, he would have had me right there without a care of someone seeing. Being watched probably would have amused him, actually." Steve took a very visible swallow and looked away while Tony continued. "The addendum of mending his ways might give him a slight pause, but I know a man-eating look when I see one. Plus, he joins us, he gets access to all the stuff he's been stealing from us anyway, only we won't have to clean up his public mess every time he wants something. It's a win for everyone."

"It sounds... delicate." Steve grimaced. Too bad for Steve that Tony already made up his mind.

"Well, the other option is to keep going like we have been. Remind me again how that's been working?"

"Loki makes me nervous." Steve admitted. "He never telegraphs his hits in any way we can catch up to in time."

"Well, friends close, enemies closer and all. I take full responsibility for Loki. Just let me let him in."

"Let you?" Natasha arched one eyebrow. "No one 'lets you' do anything. You do it, and we either reprimand you or not."

"And I like that system. So tell me you're not going to immediately reprimand me for it."

The Avengers and Fury all exchanged long glances for a moment before Fury metaphorically took the first step. "We're standing in on negotiations."

"Counter proposal: I pose the idea to Loki, gauge his reaction, and _then_ you all can step in to work details."

The others looked between each other again, but seemed mollified adequately even before Fury nodded assent.

Deal. _Nice._

"Shall we go bargain with a demigod then?"

So they all got to their feet and made the uneasy, silent trip down to the basement cell. It was strange to feel so light walking down to Loki's room with team in tow. Tony had gotten used to feeling guilty about enjoying Loki's company, but now? Now he could step into Loki's room, plan in hand, and feel _hope_ and _relief._

Loki was seated in the chair he was provided, and while he didn’t stand upon Tony's re-entrance, Loki did pull his attention in sharply.

"I have an alternative proposition for you." Tony started, and Loki leaned forward as he tilted his head curiously.

"I'm listening."

xXx

Negotiations took hours to reach mutual compromise and agreement, but they finally managed. Loki was to stay in his own suite of rooms in the Avengers compound, under passive surveillance (and escorted by an Avenger if he wished or was required to go elsewhere in the building) until he passed his flexible probationary period. Loki resisted the idea of being watched, but Tony amended that only his own AI would be the one doing so when Loki was in his private quarters, and Loki more readily acquiesced. That got a few more odd looks from the Avengers, but Tony waved them off and they finished setting terms.

It was well past dark by the time everyone got back to compound, set up Loki's rooms, and finally filed back to their own spaces, tired and wrung out, but definitely relieved with the day's semi-progress. There was much left to go in converting and trusting Loki as a team player, but at least they started. Even if there were miles to go before Tony could sleep.

Perhaps it was how Tony found himself in the common room hours after the rest of the team had gone to their beds and left Tony alone with his own mind and a now empty glass of whatever he'd gotten from the bar that seemed strong enough to take the edge off of a long day. The small amount he'd had didn't do what he intended, but it was enough to keep him from so much as flinching when the lights dimmed low behind him, followed by the sound of two solitary footsteps suddenly at his side.

"Really? With the lights?" Tony turned his head to regard his guest. "So dramatic."

"Perhaps." Loki admitted lightly and glanced out the window as Tony had moments ago. "Maybe that's why I'm so drawn to you."

Touché. "Well, I'm shiny, high maintainance, and expensive. Birds of a feather flock together and all."

"Two handsome broken birds indeed. We may take patience to care for, but who better than someone that knows what we've been through?"

Yeah, and Loki was far from wrong there. If Tony had learned anything since he and Loki started this flirtatious secret friendship of theirs, it was that they knew exactly how to deal with each other: by just being themselves. Honesty and true selves as a comfort. Who would have guessed it possible?

That wasn't to say the road was easy though. After that first surprise meeting in Tony's bedroom during Loki's long vacation in the Avengers' compound, Tony's private life shifted. At odd times that Tony was alone - in his own tower, at the team compound, in an otherwise unoccupied room in public, or _anywhere else_ \- Tony found himself not alone for long. Some times, Loki just chatted for a few minutes, taunted about the day's work, or other nights stayed for hours on end when time and privacy allowed, and they just talked. Tony never told anyone because if Loki wasn't making trouble, there was no need to report it to anyone else, was there? Not when it was only a few times. Okay, maybe it was a few _dozen_ times, but the logic still stood - Loki in Tony's private company was a Loki not out doing vastly more problematic things, and Tony was going to stick by that defense. No one else had to know that Tony enjoyed Loki's private appearances more and more every time.

Even with that, even enjoying each other's company, it wasn't instant friendship from the start. It was weeks of meeting in private before Tony allowed a shift to something that was less strictly enemies with intellectual chat benefits, longer still before Loki actually let down his guard and granted some semblance of deeper trust in Tony. Loki was covered in thick briars he'd cultivated into a painful shield around himself, and it took careful pruning on Tony's part to keep from drawing too much blood from either of them. But underneath the thorns and the dangerous exterior, Loki was... well, still a badass mage that could level a city with love as easily as rage. Loki was always powerful, but his emotions made him volatile. One moment, his rage could be a scream and destruction in his wake; the next, they could make him calm as a fall day. As fluid and variable as water. Loki was a spectrum of color and life, and Tony was falling for every point from one end to the other, despite trying his best to hold back.

He _really_ did try to hold back, but life didn't work that way, and people - Tony and Loki, especially - were greedy with desire to collect and keep those few that they came to care for. It got them in trouble more often than not, and now was definitely more the former than the latter.

"That was some show you put on today." Tony turned on his heel and made toward the bar again as Loki slowly followed. "Now my team thinks you're after my ass in whole new ways."

"It was your idea in the first place." Loki said, and it gave Tony pause before Loki clarified: "You said you wouldn't get involved otherwise and suggested I be creative in solving that. I'd say I was _very_ creative within such wide parameters."

Oh. That was... _oh_. It was something Tony had forced himself to stop thinking about - because he was thinking about it too much - a while ago. They had gotten too close, they stood on the cusp on doing something they knew they shouldn't, and fate intervened by way of Steve interrupting. Loki disappeared, and Steve had no idea what he stopped or that there was anything to stop. Since he showed up when he did though, nothing really did happen. The next day, Loki returned the first moment Tony had time to himself again, and Tony gently but firmly set some ground rules. Rule number one was that Tony didn't get involved in secret relationships anymore. Loki had agreed it was best, though maybe it helped that Tony was very clear in confirming that they definitely hadn't mixed up their signals, just that acting on them wasn't a great idea. So they had gone back to how it was before without a single hiccup - vague flirts with no shortage of innuendo, talks of their craft, too much trust, and never telling another soul about their liasons.

In hindsight, it might have been a bit much to be so specific that he did really, really want to with Loki but couldn't in good conscience when Loki was actively on a very public opposing side from Tony and the Avengers, and being friends and companions across lines was one thing, but being lovers was a whole different thing. Only now did Tony distinctly remember telling Loki that if he had a more creative way of dealing with their conundrum, then to go for it, but that had been long enough ago that Tony assumed Loki no longer wanted to bother. If he hadn't been so specific, would they be here like this now?

If Loki hadn't gotten so _creative_ in his interpretations of Tony's excuses, would they still be on that cusp of "almost" and never quite there?

Pulling out an extra glass and a decanter from under the counter of Loki's favorite poison of choice, Tony poured them each a couple fingers in their glasses as Loki took a seat at a stool beside Tony. "Still not regretting accidentally giving you a very long leash to run with." Tony conceded, and Loki beamed even with just a quiet smile. Focusing on their hands instead to fight the warmth in his own chest just from the sight of Loki's smile, Tony handed Loki his tumbler. "And you just reminded me exactly why I trusted you that much without even realizing the kind of leeway I was giving."

"And why is that?"

Loki only smiled at Tony's feigned put-upon sigh, "Because you're such a little shit."

"Yes, I am," Loki leaned in to toast their glasses. "What did you expect from the God of Chaos?"

"Nothing but trouble." Slipping between Loki's chair and the next, Tony propped himself leaned back against the bar, standing close enough that their legs brushed. "And I got _exactly_ that."

Loki huffed a short laugh and took a sip of his drink without breaking eye contact. "So do I get that kiss now?"

"I don't know, have you been good?"

A knowing, unapologetic smile as he put his glass down carefully and Tony absentmindedly did the same. "Not at all."

"Then yes. Yes, you do."

Tony tilted his head the fraction needed to fit his lips to Loki's, and Loki's soft, happy hum filled Tony's head like a haze. Loki's hands shifted to Tony's waist, tugging firm and insistent as he pulled their bodies together tightly until not a hair could shift between them, and still the kiss was tender and undemanding. The need to be close, the patience to enact it. Who _wouldn't_ get addicted to this?

"I take it you're not going to spend the night in your own super secure room." Tony asked against Loki's mouth, and even before opening his eyes, he could feel Loki's grin.

"I wasn't planning on it, no."

"Well, if I can't keep you there, whatever can be done to keep you occupied?"

"Hmm." Loki shifted his hands to Tony's hips and pulled him forward slightly as Loki stepped away. "There is an idea. But it's far from staying out of trouble."

"You have my interest."

"I believe there was talk of holding certain things against each other." He suggested, and Tony didn't suppress the shiver of feeling like liquid heat filling his gut.

"I think you might be right." Tony followed Loki's slow lead backwards. "I distinctly remember a mention of slow intimacy too."

The smile turned to a licentious grin with just a twitch of Loki's cheek. "There was."

"Then let's see how much of me we can get against you and we'll work on your idea after."

"Oh, yes, let us indeed."

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was inspired by a lyric from "Just One Yesterday" by Fallout Boy: "Anything you say can and will be held against you, so only say my name, it will be held against you." as well and Stars and I rambling at each other and somehow getting onto re-imagining Loki saying that line "slowly, intimately" in a much more intimate way to Tony. And somehow this fic came of that. XD 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed, and don't forget to comment and follow me on Tumblr @ halcyonfrost.tumblr.com where you can keep updated on my fangirling out over Marvel-related things, writing, and occasionally my own writing too. :P


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